If you even know the sport hockey exists, and live in southern Ontario, then you know the Leafs have a new man in charge. In keeping one eye on how this played out I noticed something interesting about how Burke handled the process of taking over a team.

The first thing he did, in taking over the team, was say the following to the media:

“Our team plays a North American game, we’re throwbacks,” he said before the game. “We don’t apologize for that. It’s black and blue hockey.”

“We believe in aggressive pursuit of the puck in all three zones, or possession of it desirably. We believe in answering physical challenges and playing a style that allows your younger players to play and develop in a fear-free environment.”

“No. 2, we believe in financial and fiscal prudence. At the end of the day it’s the fans’ money and the sponsors’ money, we try to spend it intelligently.”

“And third is community service. It’s not optional, you want to play in a great city like Toronto, you’ll give back to this community or we’ll find you somewhere else to play.”

Anyone who pays the least bit of attention to the Leafs knows that none of the above has been true of this team’s character or beliefs in decades. The first thing Burke did was clearly explain the character and beliefs his team espouses. A team he just joined and likely hasn’t even met yet.

It’s interesting to think about what he did NOT do. He didn’t hold a team meeting to get input from the team. He didn’t hold one on one meetings with each player to ask them each what type of team they’d like to build. He didn’t seek the commitment and buy-in of the very people who have to implement his strategy. What he did instead was laid out a clear path, one that most players will get excited about being a part of. It’s worth noting that on Saturday night the Leafs looked more like the team described above than they have in years.

Do you agree with Burke’s approach? Or is this caveman sports crap with no lessons or parallels to team building in a business?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 11:54 am and is filed under Office Gossip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.